Fault detector and automatic stop device for textile machines



- 1946. DE HART G. scRANToM 2,409,961

FAULT. DETECTOR A ND AUTOMATIC STOP DEVICE FOR TEXTILE MACHINES FiledAug. 26, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet '1 INVENTOR.

Oct. 22, 1946. DE HART s. scRAN'roM I 2,409,961-

FAULT DETECTOR AND AUTOMATIC S-TOP DEVICE FOR TEXTILE MACHINES FiledAug. 26, 1944' s Slieets-She'et 2 0 Oct. 22, 1946; DE HART G. SCRANTOM 72,409,961

FAULT DETECTOR AND AUTOMATIC STOP DEVICE FOR TEXTILE MACHINES Filed Aug.25, 1944 u 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 V o 17g giF /A INVENTOR. j. G'- Scramam flTTORNEY' Patented Oct. 22, 1946 FAULT DETECTOR AND AUTOMATIC STOP DEVICEFOR TEXTILE MACHINES De Hart G. Scrantom, Maplewood, N. J assignor toWestern Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporationof New York Application August 26, 1944, Serial No. 551,336

This invention relates to an automatic fault detector for knitting,braiding, weaving, stranding, twisting and like machines and moreparticularly to an electrically controlled stopping device for a textilemachine wherein a knitted material is produced or a knitted covering isapplied over a core such as an electric conductor.

Some of the limiting factors in operating knitting machines are thebreaking of threads and the dropping of stitches in the knitting opera-An object of the present invention is to provide a small compact devicefor promptly stopping a textile machine upon the occurrence ofundesirable conditions or faults, such as the breaking of a. yarn orthread, the breaking of the needle and/ or the dropping of a stitch.

Another object of the invention is the provision of an electrical stopdevice which may be applied readily to machines already in use withoutma terial changes in the construction thereof.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, an automatic stopdevice is applied to a knitting machine so that a control arm of thedevice is moved by the knitted material or by a conductor or core beingcovered with the knitted material when the material is movedtransversely to its direction of travel because of an unbalanced tensionin the textile strands caused by the breaking of a strand or theoccurrence of a dropped stitch during the knitting process.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following de tailed description taken in connection with thedrawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a conventional typeknitting machine disclosing the electrical stop device of this inventionapplied thereto;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged part-sectional View of the needle operatingmechanism for applying a knitted covering over an electrical conductorand the application of the automatic stop device thereto;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view showing amodified bifurcated control arm of the electrical stop device inoperative position with the conductor being covered with a knittedfabric;

Fig. 4 is a sectional View taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of the knittingmechanism disclosing the production of a smooth knitted fabric over aconductor and the position of the control arm of the stop device;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of an insulated conductorcovered. with a smooth knitted fabric;

. Fig. 7 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view 11 Claims. (Cl. 66166)of the knitting mechanism showing the production of a rough knittedfabric over a conductor and the position of the control arm of the stopdevice;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of an insulated conductorcovered with a rough knitted fabric;

Fig. 9 is a front elevational View of a modified stop device wherein thebirfurcated control arm may be moved into and out of operative position;

Fig. 10 is an end view of the modified stop device shown in Fig. 9, andV a Fig. 11 is a schematic circuit diagram disclosing one adaptation ofthe electrical stop device of this invention.

Referring now to the drawings, the reference numeral It designates aframe of a knitting machine on which is mounted a motor l I. This motordrives a pulley l2 and a belt l3, which in turn drives suitable gearingl4 enclosed in a gear box IE secured to the frame In of the machine bybolts I6. The gearing l4 rotates a hollow tubular shaft ll (Fig. 2)through which a core or electrical conductor 20 passes to or. from aknitting mechanism 2|.

The knitting mechanism to which this invention is applied is disclosedmore in detai1 in B. W. Lerch et al., Patent 2,236,183, and S. E.Brillhart Patent 2,239,378, and only so much of this mechanism isdisclosed and described hereinafter as is necessary for a'fullunderstanding of the present invention.

Rotatable with the tubular shaft ll. of the knitting mechanism, is ajack cylinder which is also driven by the gearing l4. Needle jacks 26are reciprocated in the jack cylinder through their butts 28 whichengage wobbler cams'29 operated by driven shaft IT as shown in Fig. 2.The upper end of the knitting head is provided with a needle guidecylinder 39 in which a plurality of knitting needles 3| arereciprocated. by bifurcated ends 32 of the needle jacks 2'6 engagingprojections 33 on the knitting needles. The strands, threads or yarn 35(Fig. l) for th knitting operation are supplied from a plurality ofstationary cops 36 supported on a stand 31 swingably mounted on theframe ll] of the knitting machine.

The strands of yarn or threads 35 are fed from the cops 36 throughguides 38 and 39 to a yarn guide spider 40 positioned immediately aboveand concentric with the knitting needles 3|. The guide spider 46 isadjustably mounted on an upright 4! which is secured to the uppersurface of the gear boX l5. Thisspider carries a plurality of yarnguides d5 which are concentrically arranged and equally spaced around acylindrical tube or web holder adjustably mounted in a verticaldirection within'a central opening in the spider 49 (Fig. 2). Theconductor 20 passes up or down through this cylindrical tube 46 and aknitted tubular covering of yarn is applied over the conductor by theknitting needles.

Thus the strands of yarn are led to the needles from equally spacedpoints about a circle in a symmetrical pattern to converge into aknitted covering or web around the conductor and the conductor willunder normal conditions invariably travel in a central position relativeto the knitting mechanism because of approximately equal tension of thestrands of yarn on all sides thereof. However, in the event a strand ofyarn breaks or a drop stitch occurs due to a broken needle or othercause to disturb the symmetrical pattern, the tension or pull on theknitted material and on the conductor from the various sides will beunequal thereby causing the knitted material and the conductor tooscillate or shimmy out of its normal central position of travel. If thematerial is knitted without acore then the knitted material alone willoscillate as above described on the occurrence of a defect therein.

This oscillating movement of the knitted material and the conductor onthe occurrence of a fault provides the operating basis'of the presentinvention for automatically and promptly arresting the movement of aknitting or similar machine.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a hooked control armll (Figs. 2, 5 and 7) or a bifurcated control arm t8 (Figs. 3 and 4) ispositioned to contact the knitted material or the conductor 25 When inits normal central position relative to the knittin needles arranged ina circle. This control arm 41, or 48 is slidably mounted in a support 5!which is secured by a bolt and nut to the spider it as shown in Fig.2.The straight end of the control arm 47 or 48 is provided with aninsulator member 56 which engages a vertical leaf spring contact 57suitably secured to the support 59' and insulated therefrom. Mounted intwo upturned lugs 5859 of the support 5%! are two threaded contacts Ei6lspaced on each side of the contact 51.. The threaded contacts SKI-61 canbe individually adjusted relative to the common contact 51 to give anydesired degree of sensitivity.

,As shown in the controlcircuit diagram of Fig. 11 the adjustablecontacts 6t6l are connected to ground and the contact is connectedthrough a conductor 62 to grounded battery 63. Themotor H of theknitting machine is ordinarily controlled by a hand switch t4 (Figs. 1and 11) which, when closed against the pull. of a spring 55, completes acircuit from ground through a conductor 66, a solenoid Bl, a conductor68 to grounded battery 63 to energize solenoid B1. The energization ofsolenoid 6i pulls up an armature 69 against the tension of a spring toclose a circuit through the motor I i from a source of power H to eifectoperation of the knitting machine. Hand switch fi l is also an armatureof solenoid 6'5 and hence upon energization of the solenoid the switcharmature Ed is held in circuit closing position against the pull ofspring 65 to provide a locking circuit for the solenoid.

When a strand s5 breaks or a stitch is dropped by a broken needle or byan other cause, the conductor or core 25 being covered with a knit tedtextile is thrown from a balanced central position of travel into anoscillatory movement. The oscillating core 25 and/or the knittedteX-tile moves control arm 47 or 48 to close either contacts 51, 60 or El,6!. The closure of either of these' contacts by the controlarm'establishes a shunt from ground through either contact at or 6!through conductor 62 to grounded battery 63 to thus shunt out or by passthe solenoid 61 thereby tie-energizing it. The coil spring 19 then movesthe armature 65 to open position to disconnect the motor from the sourceof power 58 to stop the machine. The shunting of solenoid 67de-energizes it and spring 85 then moves switch 64 to open position toprevent restarting of the machine until the defect is corrected andswitch 64 is again manually closed.

From the foregoing it will be evident that the textile machine will beautomatically controlled and stopped when any defect occurs in theknitted fabric to cause it to move out of its normal line of travel orto cause the core being covered to fluctuate out of its normal line oftravel.

The knitting machine disclosed in Fig; i. of the drawings is designed toproduce a smooth covering as shown in Fig. 6 with knots l2 on the insideor to produce a rough covering as shown in Fig. '2 with the knittedknots E2 on the outside.

In the production of the smooth covering the conductor or core 2i]enters the top of the knitting mechanism and travels downward asindicated by the arrows in Figs. 5 and 3. In knitting a smooth covering,the cylindrical tube Or web holder 66 is moved upwardly from theposition shown in Figs. 2 and 7 to that shown in Fig. 5 so that thecontrol arm 4? or 48 of the stop de vice is positioned below the webholder 46.

In knitting a rough covering, the conductor or core 20 enters the bottomof the knitting mechanism and travels upwardly as indicated bythe arrowin Fig. 7. This knitting operation requires that the web holder 45 bepositioned closer to the knitting needles 3| as shown in Fig. 7 and thatthe control arm ll or 48' be positioned Within a cut out in the webholder 45 as shown in Figs. 2 and 7.

A modified structure for moving the control arm of the stop device intoand out of engagement with the conductor or core 213 is disclosed inFigs. 9 and 10. In this modification the support 51] of the stop deviceis provided with a movable lever is which is pivoted at M on thesupport. -The lever 13 has mounted on it a leaf spring contact which issimilar to and performs the same function as the leaf spring contact Elshown in Figs. 2 and 11. Contact 15 is bifurcated at its lower end toform forks l6 (Fig. ,10) which are positioned in a slot in the insulatormember 56 secured to the right hand end (Fig. 9) of a control arm Tl.Control arm 'l'l performs the same function and is somewhat similar tocontrolarrn '38 in that it has a modified forked endl8 and is slidablymounted in an upturned lug 19 of the support 55. Also mounted on andcarried by the pivoted lever F3 are the two adjustable contacts 6El- 6|(Figs. 9 and 11) which are mounted in lugs 39 integral with the lever. 7

When the lever 13 is manually moved counterclockwise to the positionindicated in dotted outline in'Fig. 9 the leaf spring contact '55mounted thereon is also moved and through its forks 15 move theinsulator 56 and control arm ii to the right as indicated in dottedoutline. This movement of the control arm moves its forked end 13 out ofengagement with theconductor 20 so as to expedite the making of repairswhen a defect ocours in the knitting operation. 7

The'lever 13 is held in its dotted'line position of Fig. 9 by atensioned coil springtZ; one-end of which is secured to a portion 83 ofthe support 5t and the other end of which is secured to an upturned lug84 on the lever 13. Since the lower end of the spring 32 is thus movedabout pivot is to shorten the distance between 83 and 8d the springbecomes shorter and holds the lever 13 in the indicated dotted lineposition. Likewise, when lever 13 is manually moved to its operative orfull line position of Fig. 9 to bring the forked end 18 of the controllever i! into engagement with the conductor 28, the spring 82 is againshortened to hold lever l3 in that position.

When support 50 with its modified structure (Figs. 9 and 10) mountedthereon is secured to the knitting machine in the position shown for thesupport 553 in Fig. 2, the control arm Ti will likewise operate thecircuit shown in Fig. 11 to stop the machine when a defect occurs as hasbeen described.

t is to be understood that the nature of the embodiment of the inventionherein disclosed is merely illustrative and that the invention can beapplied to braiding, knitting, weaving, stranding, twisting and likemachines and that changes and 'modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a machine of the types indicated, means for combining a pluralityof strands to form a covering over a traveling core which moves out ofits normal path of travel when a defect occurs in the covering, andmachine stopping means operated by the core when a defect occurs in thecovering.

2. In a machine of the types indicated, means for applying a textilecovering over a traveling core which moves laterally when a defectoccurs in the covering, control means in contact with the traveling coreand movable therewith in a lateral direction when a defect occurs in thecovering, and stopping means for the machine controlled by the saidcontrol means.

3. In a machine of the types indicated, means for combining strands toform a covering over a traveling core which oscillates out of its normalline of travel when a defect occurs in the covering, and means forstopping the machine including a control arm operated by the core when adefect occurs in the covering.

4. A stop device for machines for applying a covering of strands over atraveling core which automatically varies its movement when a defectoccurs in the covering, comprising an arm positioned near the travelingcore and adapted to be actuated by the core when a defect occurs in itscovering, and electric contacting means operated by the actuated arm tostop the machine.

5. Electrically operated stop devices for machines of the typesindicated for applying a textile covering to a traveling core whichoscillates when a defect occurs in the textile covering, comprisingnormally open contacts, means controlled by the oscillation of the coreto close the contacts, and means controlled by the closure of thecontacts to stop the machine.

6. In a machine of the types indicated, a motor,

means operated by the motor for combining strands to form a movingtubular fabric which oscillates out of its normal path of travel when adefect occurs in the fabric, a control arm in contact with the travelingfabric, and a control circuit for the motor which is operated by thecontrol arm when a defect occurs in the fabric to oscillate the arm todisconnect the motor and stop the machine.

7. In a machine of the types indicated, means for combining a pluralityof strands to form a covering over a traveling core which moves out ofits normal path of travel when a defect occurs in the covering, andmachine stopping means operated by the core when a defect occurs in thecovering including a control arm for engaging the core, and means formoving the control arm out of engagement with the core.

8. In a machine of the types indicated, a motor, means operated by themotor for combining strands to form a moving tubular fabric whichoscillates out of its normal path of travel when a defect occurs in thefabric, a control member in contact with the traveling fabric, a controlcircuit for the motor which is operated. by the control member when adefect occurs in the fabric to oscillate the member to disconnect themotor and stop the machine, and means for moving the control member outof contact with the traveling fabric.

9. In a machine of the types indicated, means for combining strands toform a covering over a core normally traveling without oscillating butwhich oscillates when a defect occurs in the covering, an electric motorfor driving the strandcombining means, an arcuate feeler, means forurging the arcuate feeler into contact with the traveling core, a switchin circuit with the electric motor for stopping the motor, and meansoperable by the arcuate feeler when the traveling core oscillates foractuating the switch to stop the electric motor.

10. In a machine of the types indicated, means for continuouslycombining strands into a covering over a core normally traveling withoutoscillating but which oscillates when a defect occurs in the covering,means for driving the strandcombining means, a relay for stopping thedriving means when actuated, a pair of contacts in circuit with therelay and connected in parallel with each other, said contacts beingspaced a predetermined distance apart, a contactor in circuit with therelay for actuating it when in engagement with one of the contacts, andmeans including a feeler for engaging the covering for holding thecontactor out of engagement with the contacts when the core does notoscillate and. for moving the contactor into engagement with one of thecontacts when the core oscillates.

11. In a machine of the types indicated, means for continuouslycombining a plurality of strands into a covering over a core beingadvanced through the strand-combining means normally without beingoscillated but which is oscillated when a defect occurs in the covering,an electric motor for driving the strand-combining means, an electricalcircuit for controlling the motor and including a pair of contactsspaced a predetermined distance apart and connected in parallel and acontactor positioned between the contacts, said motor controllingcircuit serving to deenergize the motor when the contactor engages oneof the contacts, a slidably mounted feeler for holding the contactor outof engagement with both the contacts when the core is not oscillated,and means controlled by the feeler for moving the contactor intoengagement with one of the contacts when the core is oscillated. wherebythe electric motor is deenergized.

DE HART G. SCRANTOM.

